Readers of The Bitten Word cooked every recipe in the September 2013 Bon Appetit magazine. Here's their take on Beef Tartare.
Quinn: The beauty of this dish is the clarity of flavor that each component brings. In every bite you can taste the Korean-spiced aioli, the sweet and tangy Asian pear, the robust soy dressing, the refreshingly crispy watercress, and - of course - the steak. I used an organic, grass feed, top sirloin steak from a local Seattle butchery. The flavor was full and complex, similar to cooked steak but more rich and meaty. I feel like it really made the dish.
Rafal: My family has Tartare fairly frequently and the traditional way we have had it for years brought out quite a few scoff and questions of "Why would you put THAT in tartare?!". About 30 minutes later, after the first bite, jaws dropped and almost everyone had to apologize for being judgmental.
Roger: The recipe looks really daunting and has a long list of ingredients, but I didn’t let that stop me at all. Honestly, once you break it down into smaller steps that can be completed in advance, the recipe is actually fairly easy. I ran to the store to stock up on my ingredients and the only thing I couldn’t find was watercress so I substituted some curly endive. I planned on taking the dish to a party over the weekend, so I started the day before with making the pickled Asian pear. Delicious. The dressing and aioli were next and came together very easily too. Everything went into the fridge for the next morning and I was off to bed. In the morning, I diced the eye of round and then made some crostini. The recipe didn’t say what to serve the tartare with, so I figured that would work. I packed everything into the car and once I got to my destination assembled the whole thing on site. Super easy since I did the prep the day before. Everyone absolutely LOVED it and insisted I try it myself. I really didn’t want to try it (raw beef… ick), but once I did I was sold. I can’t believe it, but I really loved it! Thanks for including me this year, guys! You’ve turned me into a raw beef fan.
Jon and Brooke: We were suuuuper trepidatious about this recipe and couldn't believe it when we saw what we were assigned. Still, we decided to stay in the game. One of the most difficult parts was assembling the ingredients. We got almost everything, but never did find brown mustard seeds - and we swapped out Chinese hot mustard for regular mustard powder, since we aren't big fans of spicy things. Other than that, we stuck to the recipe. It was actually pretty simple to put together -- the aioli was a little bit more complicated than the rest, but it came out well. We had some friends over for a tasting - getting ready to take that first bite was nerve-wracking, but then it was actually amazing! We were so pleasantly surprised. It tasted great! The marinade especially was really wonderful on the raw meat.
Jon: Although I was somewhat worried when I saw my dish was beef tartare, I am so glad it was. After procrastinating until the last minute, I invited some adventurous friends over last night to try this dish -- and we were all thrilled with the results. Having failed to make any of the components in advance, I put the entire recipe together in about an hour and a half, and with little effort. The flavor combination was phenomenal. There was great beef flavor of course, accented by the Asian flavors of the soy dressing and the peppery bite of the watercress. The crunch of the pickled pear and the pinenuts add a delightful textural element. As someone who would never have ordered, let alone decided to make, beef tartare, I can't thank you enough for giving me a reason to try something out of my comfort zone! The one thing I would change is to at least double the watercress called for -- and just had enough to put a nice pile on each plate.
Laura Graham: This recipe was described as "several recipes within a recipe", which was true enough but the fact that the accompanying sauces and pickled asian pear could be made a couple of days ahead helped mitigate that issue. The tartare was absolutely delicious; I served it as a starter followed by Thai inspired Chilean sea bass. My only comments for future makers of this dish: 1) make it! Delish! 2) serve with a slotted spoon and drain well as the soy dressing is deceptively runny post-plating 3) one foodie guest stated that he thought it was tuna (i kept everything about the dish a secret), but I used a $7 cut of eye round, so don't splurge on the meat! Loved participating; thanks for the opportunity!
Get the Beef Tartare recipe at Bon Appétit
Head back to the Mains (with meat!) Index